Startup TNT Commits Over $500,000 To Cleantech, Life Sciences And Agri-Food Summit Winners
Startup TNT, Western Canada’s most active pre-seed and seed investor, announced the top companies in its 2024 Sector Summits, which are collectively taking home more than $500,000 in investments. The three winners were crowned on March 14, 2024 at three concurrently held Summit Finale events in Edmonton, Calgary and Regina. Each winner is receiving an aggregated pool of investment of between $120,000 and $210,000 from a combination of local angel investors and TNT's venture capital fund.
Cleantech Summit winner Connect X secured over $200,000. Calgary-based Connect X leverages technology to modernize aging electricity grids, ultimately leading to savings of energy usage and managed demands, and therefore decreasing energy costs with reliable electricity.
The other four cleantech finalists were Edmonton-based Aqua-Cell Energy, and Calgary companies C02 Brew, Ena Solution and MissionNet.
Life Sciences Summit (powered by API) winner OligomicsTx secured over $175,000. OligomicsTx is in the early stages of developing advanced therapies that can effectively combat rare and hard-to-treat nervous system disorders.
Two other finalists, Qualisure and PulmVita also secured deal commitments from participating investors. The other finalists were Edmonton-based MACH32, Calgary-based Wave View Imaging and Vancouver-based Difinity Solutions.
Agri-Food Summit winner BetterCart Analytics secured over $140,000. BetterCart Analytics leverages AI to help organizations access real-time food supply chain data for a range of purposes to improve their business. The startup has previously secured an investment deal from Startup TNT as part of the 2023 regional Saskatchewan Investment Summit.
Two other 2024 finalists, Calgary-based AgGene and Vancouver-based Geco Engineering also secured deal commitments from participating investors. The other two finalists were Saskatoon’s Rayhawk Technologies and North Vancouver’s Maia Farms.
“Once again, this year’s Startup TNT Sector Summit showcased an incredible crop of companies that are fueling the next wave of innovation,” said Zack Storms, co-founder of Startup TNT. “These ventures are focused on improving outcomes for people and the planet – and we’re thrilled to be able to support these entrepreneurs in their mission. Congratulations to everyone, including the founders who took part, as well as the investors and partners who made this year’s program possible.”
Startup TNT’s tri-annual Investment Summits are a platform for entrepreneurs and innovators seeking seed-stage funding. The Summit provides an opportunity to receive seed funding for founders and to build relationships with investors and other participants in the startup community.
For investors, the Summit offers a team-based diligence process, which provides a more efficient, distributed model for experienced angels to make seed-stage investments, and a collaborative training model for those exploring angel investing for the first-time. At the end of the process, selected startups typically take home upwards of $100,000 from angel investors, while Startup TNT’s own venture capital fund, TNT Capital, invests another $50,000 into the winners. Every year, Startup TNT facilitates between $400k and $1 million of investment into each of its communities.
Earlier this year, Startup TNT was recognized in CVCA’s 2023 Canadian Venture Capital Market Overview as the most active pre-seed and seed stage investor in Western Canada. Following the completion of these 2024 Sector Summits, Startup TNT has now raised over $13 million in seed-stage capital for 90+ companies across Western Canada.
Summit IX Applications Open
Startup TNT is now accepting applications for its Spring Summit IX which aims to raise $1M for Prairie-based startups across all industry verticals. Four unique Summit streams will be held for startup companies located in Edmonton (Northern Alberta), Calgary (Southern Alberta), Saskatchewan (Provincial), and Manitoba (Provincial). The deadline for companies to apply is April 15, 2024. The investor kick-off is April 24, 2024. Learn more at startuptnt.com/summit-ix
Quotes from the Winners:
Pratik Ghoshal, founder and CEO, Connect X: “We are thrilled and honoured to have emerged as the winner of the prestigious Startup TNT cleantech summit 2024. This transformative 9-week journey has not only validated our efforts at Connect X but has also refined our value propositions by leaps and bounds. The invaluable support and encouragement from the investors and mentors at Startup TNT have instilled in us a deep sense of responsibility as we embark on this exciting next chapter of execution, validation and commercialization. With the meaningful investment secured, we are eager to further refine our technology, expand our team, and execute our pilot with confidence, driving impactful change in the cleantech industry globally, as a proud Canadian/Albertan company.”
Dr. Toshi Yokota, co-founder and chief strategy officer at OligomicsTx: “We, at OligomicsTx, are truly grateful for the opportunity to work with Startup TNT and thrilled to be selected as the winner! It’s wonderful to have the support of our community through this collaborative process in terms of scientific and business diligence. As a company with several exciting preclinical assets to develop, the funding from Startup TNT will help us build the foundations of our business operations and facilitate work on the critical IP for our lead program. We thank everyone at Startup TNT and API, especially the investors, for their support and belief in OligomicsTx.”
Melanie Morrison, co-founder and CEO of BetterCart: “We’re thrilled to have won this year’s Agri-Food Summit! I valued the opportunity to have our company introduced to more individuals in the investor ecosystem across Western Canada, and to meet new investors throughout the due diligence process. As a big data company with AI as part of our core tech, we’re laser-focused on data acquisition, model testing and training, and application for the purposes of horizontal and vertical growth. With this new capital, we’ll be investing in R&D and accelerating our client growth.”
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Media contact:
William Johnson
Startup TNT
will@startuptnt.com
604.619.4163
